


Who Would've Thought

by orphan_account



Series: Short Stories | Ereri [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Childhood Memories, Engagement, Established Relationship, Friends to Lovers, Hate, Homophobic Language, Love, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Nervousness, Nostalgia, One Shot, Ring Pops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 18:23:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11765721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: At the age of eight, Eren Jaeger had dropped his Ring pop into a pond at the park near his house, and was astonished that another boy gave him one as a replacement.Seventeen years later, and now, I think he owes that same little boy a ring.





	Who Would've Thought

**Author's Note:**

> This is honestly one of the strangest stories I have ever written, but I found the whole idea incredibly sweet even though my writing does not put the idea to good use.

Eren didn’t know how or why he had dropped his precious ring pop into the pond in Sina Park. Looking back at it now, he would probably assume that he was distracted with other matters at the time and it had slipped straight off his finger into the mucky water by his feet. He would also be inclined to believe that he most likely sobbed as if he was two instead of eight, and was already mourning the loss of the treat given to him by his mother earlier that day.

No one stopped to question the crying boy because truly, it hadn’t of been any of their business to intervene. Many of the people who happened to walk through the park were those that were business men looking for a shortcut on their way to work. None of them cared; they had no affiliation with the crying boy and it would only be a hassle they weren’t willing to waste their time with.

But Levi Ackerman, another child who happened to be passing by with his mother, had watched the entire scene take place, and was already dragging his mother over to where the crying boy stood by the pond’s edge. The kid was annoying, and all Levi wanted to do was go on a quiet walk that morning, so all he had to do was make the kid shut up and he would have the situation in his way. 

Kutchel was confused by her son’s behavior, for it to be to be so caring when he was usually a frowning, constantly annoyed boy, but she was also warmed by his actions. It wasn’t everyday that she saw him act so kind and compassionate to other kids his age, so she was surely impressed. 

“Hey, kid,” Levi said as soon as they were in the hearing range of the boy. He dropped Kutchel’s hand to instead reach into his pocket where he had placed the ring pop his mother bought him just minutes earlier at the nearby gas station. It was quite peculiar for him to speak to the other child as if he was severely younger, even though they were most likely around the same age, “here.”

Eren turned around as he heard someone approaching him. Wiping his tears with the sleeve of his shirt in order of not embarrassing himself more than he already had, he finally asked, “what?”

Levi wanted to roll his eyes at how the other kid was behaving, but decided not too since the boy seemed to already be classified as a wimp, and he would probably start crying if Levi offended him in the slightest, “I saw that you accidently dropped your candy in the pond, so here. You can have mine.” He held out the ringpop still encased in its wrapper to the other child. 

The brunette of the two sniffed and turned back to look at the pond, “I’m not allowed to take candy from strangers. It’s dangerous.” He wiped his nose with the same end of the sleeve he had previously used to dry his eyes, which made Levi cringe immensely.

Levi heard his mother hum at how smart the other boy was about not taking things from people he didn’t know. “Smart kid,” she muttered, walking up behind her son to try and coax him from the small issue that had just previously been awoken. As she grew closer, Levi turned around and shooed her away. 

Kutchel held up her hands in surrender and once again backed away; holding in her laughter as Levi went back to trying to coax the other child to shut up- to put it in simpler words.

“Well, Hi, my name’s Levi. Now we aren’t strangers,” he only continued to hold out the sweet. 

Eren stared for just a few moments before his eyes narrowed dramatically, “Why do you want me to take the ring pop so badly? Surely, only a murderer you put poison on it would want me to have it so badly.” 

The accusation was one large enough to make nine-year-old Levi want to scoff. 

A few moments passed of nothing other than silence and the chirping of nearby birds in the tree canopy above their heads. Eren eventually gave up and reached over to pull the candy from the other boy’s grasp with gentle fingers. “I’m Eren,” he said, unwrapping the candy and staring at the shiny sweet inside of the foil wrapping, “and thank you.” He didn’t eat the candy offered to him by Levi, he just stared at it with a certain intrigued look in his eyes.

“You’re welcome,” Levi muttered, slightly embarrassed by his previous actions. He didn’t know why he was suddenly so flustered at his daring attempts to calm the kid. He watched as Eren slid the candy ring onto his finger and popped it into his mouth. All he wanted to do was shut Eren up so he could then have a peaceful walk with his mother, but now that he was standing here with the other kid, he felt both nervous and… what was the word… _blushy?_

Yeah, that was the word… _blushy_

...

Levi felt _blushy_ as fuck today, and he knew exactly why.

Today he was going to do it. Today was the day that he was going to propose to the love of his life, and he couldn’t even think straight enough to gather the nerve for him to actually do it. Hell, he _wasn’t even straight_ , and he was practically yelling at himself to think straight enough to get out the words, “Eren, will you marry me?”

It seemed much more simple in Levi’s than he actually knew it would be. 

Levi growled out of frustration and ran his fingers through his hair for the millionth time that evening. At this rate, he was going to go bald prematurely. He knew that Eren didn’t want anything fancy to occur- hell, Levi didn’t even have a ring to offer to his hopefully future husband because Eren said if they ever did get married, he didn’t really want an extremely expensive one. Unfortunately for both parties, Levi couldn't find a single, simple band in the entire state for whatever reason. 

He had driven three hours to the best ring place in the country, and all that they had were diamond ones that costed well over twenty to forty-thousand dollars since they were such high quality. Levi was originally going to postpone his proposal until he found Eren a ring that would match his personality to the highest extent, but after a while he knew that he would chicken out if he didn’t do it on the date that he planned, so he was going to do it without a ring. Levi was lucky that Eren wasn’t one for materialistic things.

Levi already knew what he was going to do, however. He was going to take his lover out for dinner at his favorite restaurant and propose there in the most normal, mediocre way possible. Of course, he was incredibly nervous to see how the rest of the restaurant would react. The last thing Levi wanted was for him to propose somewhere other than the place he had in mind and have the entire thing ruined because some bigot disagreed with their “lifestyle.” There was definitely going to be the off chance that someone would complain, or a waiter would refuse to serve them, which was terrifying on its own, so Levi could only hope for the best under such circumstances. 

“Eren,” Levi said in the bathroom mirror; practicing what he was going to say. “You are the love of my life-” He smacked himself in the face as the words left his mouth. “No no no, that’s too sappy and unoriginal..” The raven cleared his throat and stuck out his chest, “Eren, I wish to spend the rest of my life with you-” With a groan, he paused again and rubbed at his face, “stupid, stupid, stupid… Eren would hate if I said all of that usual, boring shit…. What if I said: Dear, when we are together, I feel as if I’m meeting you again for the very first time- Jesus Christ, who am I? My _Grandmother?_ Eren _hates_ it when I call him dear… What if I called him Honey? No, that’s fucking worse…”

Contemplating his options, he eventually gave up and quickly decided that he was going to do nothing other than make it up on the spot. If he thought it over too hard he wouldn’t be able to deliver and that would be even worse than doing what he would probably say without a script. 

Levi left the bathroom without another word of complaint and made his way down the hallway and into the bedroom where his boyfriend was attempting to tie his own tie in front of their long, body length mirror; obviously failing at doing so.

Eren turned as he heard Levi enter and offered him a nearly blinding smile, “ready to go yet?” He asked in his usual, carefree tone that he used whenever speaking to Levi. 

The other male raised an eyebrow at the attempts of a Windsor knot hanging from his hopefully future fiances neck and nodded slowly. He went to turn away to grab his keys from the bedside table but paused just a moment to get an eyeful of Eren standing in his, what he called, “fancy slacks” and white button up shirt that Levi had bought for him for his sister’s wedding a few years back. 

He looked _good._

Eren caught him ogling his form and laughed lightly, “like what you see?”

“Excluding that tie, yes,” Levi grabbed his keys and then walked over to Eren, grabbing him by said offending material and pulling him close enough that their breaths were intermingling with one another. “I thought I taught you how to tie a Windsor for that one job interview?” His tone was teasing- nothing in the least bit accusatory. 

With a hum, Eren leaned in even closer to Levi to the point where their lips were basically touching, “you did, but I forgot. I guess you’re going to have to teach me again.”

Levi raised an eyebrow at Eren’s teasing methods and chuckled, “of course you can’t remember how to tie a tie, but you remember those fancy knots I showed you when we were nineteen.”

“But we use those more often,” Eren said darkly, his eyes darting from Levi’s lips and back up to his eyes, “maybe I can show you just how much i _do_ remember-” He pressed himself forwards and captured Levi in a deep, passionate kiss; eagerly prying Levi’s mouth open to openly kiss him.

Inhaling through his nose, Levi pulled back before he go too distracted with Eren’s colorful choice of actions, “mm, save it ‘til after dinner. Right now we have reservations to get to- and no, we are not going to be late like last time because _this time_ took four weeks to get reservations here. He patted Eren’s hand that had found its way to the back of his head and then pulled it back down to his boyfriend’s side. 

“Boring old man,” Eren chided as he reached around Levi to grope at his behind.

Levi smacked away the cheeky hands of his boyfriend with a non-threatening glare, “oi, watch it.”

...

“Sir, I’m sorry, but my logs show no signs of a reservation under an _Ackerman._ Would it be perhaps under a different surname?” The hostess glanced upwards from the small Chromebook laptop that she was typing away at; tending other matters, to be assumed.

Levi stared at her blankly. _Did he just hear her right. Did she say that there was no reservation?_

“Um, excuse me?” The raven ignored the way that Eren placed his hand on his shoulder in a measly attempt to have him keep his calm. 

Said man knew exactly how long Levi had been planning this date for the two of them, and he also understood just how hard it was to even land a table here. They had practically the best food in the entire country here; it surely wasn’t a surprise. 

“There’s just isn’t a reservation under your name, Mr. Ackerman. Would it maybe be under your friend’s?”

Levi almost rolled his eyes at how clueless the server was, her name-tag read “Hitch,” to their relationship, but he most certainly didn’t because he was more concerned with getting a table and making Eren happy. He had promised Eren with all of his heart on his sleeve that he would treat him to one of the best nights of his entire life… and now all of his plans were foiled.

“Check them again.”

The hostess sighed, furrowing her eyebrows together as she continued to tap away before it came to a sudden, abrupt stop, “I’m sorry, sir, but there’s no reservation for two tonight, under an ‘Ackerman,’ do you want me to put you on the waiting list?”

“I’ve been on the waiting list for _two weeks_ now,” Levi almost growled. 

“Levi…” Eren sighed, interrupting Levi’s angry stare , “we can just go to somewhere else- it isn’t that big of a deal.” He rubbed his shoulder comfortingly with his usual, relaxing voice that had Levi actually considering leaving the restaurant without a single issue whatsoever; today was however, different in many ways. With a few more seconds of consideration, Levi’s glare stayed strongly put on the waitress.

“Eren, can you please go out to the car for a second to grab my phone?”

Eren narrowed his eyes, “Levi…”

Rolling his eyes, Levi then responded, “I’m not going to start anything, just, please, go grab it.” 

While he didn’t look convinced at all, he went along with his boyfriend’s commands and quickly pressed his lips to Levi’s in a chaste kiss before turning to leave.

As soon as Eren was completely out of earshot, Levi spun back around to face the hostess and slammed his fist down onto the podium separating them. He had spent nearly four hours on a phone with a representative to get these reservations,a d he wasn’t taking “no” for a god damn answer. 

“Okay,” he began, “let’s cut the bullshit. I need a table _today_ ; I’ve been on the waiting list for a decent fucking amount of time and I have cell phone records of the conversation I had with the hostess to get me and my _date_ a table.” Levi glanced over his shoulder to make sure Eren wasn’t coming back inside from getting his phone, and then continued, “I was planning on proposing today and this is his favorite restaurant- I’ll pay you three times the regular; this is just extremely important to me.”

The hostess looked conflicted as she looked back down at her laptop and then behind her at the tables. She sighed as she turned back around, “I’m really sorry, and there’s nothing I want to do more than help you both get a table- but there just aren’t any available. If you’re really set on proposing to him here, I suggest you try to reschedule for another time. Once again, I’m truly sorry for these inconveniences -”

“I understand,” Levi grunted as he pinched the bridge of his nose in obvious aggravation, cutting the young woman off. “Can I please speak to the manager? I need to have a word with them to see what _exactly_ happened to my reservations in the first place.”

Hitch simply followed Levi’s orders to the best of her ability and left to go retrieve him from the back. In the meantime, Eren had returned and pressed Levi’s cellphone into his hand as he stuck a quick kiss from his lover.

 

“Any update on our table?” Eren said as his lips were still connected with Levi’s cheek as soon as Hitch returned with a large, burly man walking just a few passes behind her.

He was extremely tall, but also seemingly old for having so much muscle mass. He smiled sickly at both Eren and Levi as he came to a stop before the podium; his teeth looking as if they were going to fall out of his mouth at any second from their poor condition. The man was quite frightening, to say the least- and that wasn’t just because of his scraggly, white beard clinging to his face for dear life. 

“Hello, my name is Zeke, and I’m the owner of this fine establishment- what seems to be the issue today?” _Oh god, even his breath smelled as disgusting as his grin._

Levi cleared his throat and tried his best to match Zeke’s threatening appearance, “we have reservations tonight, and it seems to your hostess that there are none under my name, or my date’s, for that matter.”

Zeke snorted at Levi’s words, which left the latter extremely confused by his queer reaction.

“What-”

“Your _date?_ With another _man?”_

If looks could kill, Zeke would be lying on the floor in a heap of innards and body parts. 

Eren placed his hand gently on Levi’s shoulder in a measly attempt to calm him, “Levi, we should probably go-”

 _“Yes,_ now, all we want is our table-”

Another light, dark chuckle escaped the older man, freezing Levi to the spot, “I’m not serving any _faggots_ in my restaurant. Serves you right for your disgusting habits. Wow, all of these beautiful women in the world,” he gestured to where Hitch was equally as frozen in place while standing next to the manager, “and you both want to fuck around with men. Disgusting.”

Eren’s hand tightened in grip., “Levi, we can eat somewhere else-”

“Wow, you really have the audacity to shame _us_ for being disgusting, while your breath smells like sewage? Yes, truly, _we’re_ the disgusting ones. You’re either stupid, or just scared that a dick might taste really good,” Levi snapped. “I don’t know if you know this or not, but it's 2017, and it’s illegal in this state to refuse service to someone based on sexual orientation.”

Zeke’s eyes narrowed dangerously but he ignored Levi’s lawful statement, “get yourself and your faggot fuck-buddy out of my restaurant. Don’t ever fucking come here again. Fairies aren’t welcome- especially ones who are ugly as that-” he gestured to Eren with his thumb- “fuckin’ pansy.”

Levi had always been one to take the most reasonable approach to homophobic comments. He always thought out his actions before he said anything or, for that matter, acted, but there were just those few moments were Levi’s anger thought faster than his reason- especially when current circumstances rendered someone insulting the love of Levi’s life. 

This was one of those moments.

And Levi would _never_ , in the rest of his entire life, regret hearing the sound of Zeke’s nose crack under his fist.

...

“You’re lucky that they didn’t call the police,” Eren said as soon as they were a good two blocks from the restaurant. “They would’ve probably been arrested for refusing us service but we could’ve wound up in the same cell as that bastard if they had decided to.” Levi could easily tell that Eren was a bit angry with his actions, but slightly impressed nonetheless. “What the fuck were you thinking back there?!”

 

Levi straightened his blazer to get rid of the wrinkles that had formed from Zeke grabbing him by the collar and throwing both him and Eren out of the restaurant, “did you fucking hear what he was saying about you? I wasn’t just going to stand there and have him shame us for wanting to do nothing but eat out. It wasn’t like we were fucking in front of him.” He grabbed Eren’s wrist and quickly checked to see if any damage had occurred from roughly being dragged out by security.

His eyes found the slightest bit of a red spot and his jaw clenched dangerously tight, “they even had the audacity-”

“It’s a red spot, baby,” Eren said. “I can’t even feel it. Can’t say the same for how much in a world of hurt that manager is in right now with his nose practically hanging from his face.” He laughed, “that was a great punch, though. I guess all of those years in boxing throughout college really came to good use tonight.” He pressed a chaste kiss to Levi’s forehead. 

“We should go back and trash the place for how they treated you,” Levi rolled his eyes at Eren’s gesture.

The Brunette wrapped his arm over his lover’s shoulder and proceeded to laugh, “are you not going to mention how poorly you were treated? I wasn’t just me who was kicked out, now was it?”

“Yeah, it happened, but that doesn’t really matter. People can talk about me as much as they want and I couldn't honestly give less of a shit. It only starts to bother me when they bring you into the conversation and say things like that to you.”

Eren sighed and ignored the judgeful looks a mother gave to the both of them as she passed with her child, “You really are an interesting person.” He ran his fingers through the Raven’s dark locks as they continued to walk down the street; being the handsy person that he always was, completely over affectionate and trying to show Levi how much he cared.

“Really? Is interesting the word you’re using just because I care about you?”

Now it was Eren’s turn to roll his eyes, “people usually care more about themselves than others because it’s a method relating back to survival instincts.” He messed up Levi’s hair again until the other male physically removed his hand from his head, which made Eren laugh.

Levi sighed as Eren once again wrapped his arm around him and leaned into his boyfriend, “well, I’m sorry that our night is absolutely ruined. I can try to get some other restaurant for dinner tonight? I can’t promise that it will be as nice as the one we were trying to get into, but it’s better than nothing.”

A small hum left Eren, as he thought out a few of his options, “I think that manager ruined my appetite for a while. I don’t think I’m really hungry at the moment. How ‘bout we go to the park? We can always get hot dogs at one of the vendors there.” He raised an eyebrow down at Levi and nudged him in a questioning, happy manner, “Eh? Eh? Can we go to the park?”

Levi almost started to laugh but caught himself. He cleared his throat and then decided to speak, “you’re such a child… but fine. Yes, we can go to the park. I haven’t been there since I was younger- when my mother would take me. I think it’s time I go again.” He nudged Eren back playfully. He wasn’t going to get to do what he originally intended to do, but he could always propose to Eren as soon as they got another reservation to a place that wouldn’t remove our reservation from the list, or shame them.

Then again, he didn’t know if he still had the guts to propose that night. What if Eren wasn’t ready for it? What if he didn’t want to get married to Levi for some reason? He didn’t know why he was so worried over it, since they had practically been together since their preteen years, but there was always the small chance that Eren would say no. Many people said no when they were proposed to because they simply weren’t ready for such commitment. 

Honestly, Levi wanted nothing more than to mutter those few words… but he just didn’t know how. He was going to have to do it eventually, but that day just wasn’t going to be today. Maybe by the time he finally gathered up the nerve, he would find a ring worthy for Eren.

...

The park was just as beautiful as Levi remembered it being during his childhood. Everything was practically the same excluding a few minor changes like the flowers and a few of the trees being a little bit larger, and a few that had been removed since they had gotten too big and were of threat of falling onto power lines. Everything was practically the same as it had been when he once had taken daily walks with his mother before she had gotten sick.

Eren had many of the same memories as his Lover in this very park. He used to come here every day after school with his sister and a few of his best friends (including Levi) during primary school. Throughout high school, they had found other places to hang out since they were able to drive, and the park was slowly forgotten with time. However, Eren would now jog through it on his daily runs every morning, and he could never forget the place where he met the love of his life.

“This is where we met,” Levi muttered as they walked closer to where the pond was located in the center of the park. He gazed down into the murky water and started to laugh as he remembered how much Eren had cried after he had dropped his candy by accident. He remembered how his mother had been so confused by his kind treatment towards the other boy; he was so cold towards to other children. 

Eren allowed his gaze to follow Levi’s and he smiled. He could feel his hands grow clammy and his pocket grow incredibly heavy… like there was a weight inside of it instead of something much lighter. 

“Yeah,” Eren chuckled and swallowed heavily. He allowed his eyes to dart over to where Levi was still gazing down at the pond water; obviously looking back on that day with what he could remember from the many years that had passed and started to fog up his memories. 

Levi looked over at Eren and cocked an eyebrow at how he was staring, “what?”

A sigh left Eren’s mouth and he smiled, “just thinking how much I love you.”

Arms now crossed and trying to unravel what his lover was getting at, Levi only held that position and urged Eren onward with a, “hmhm? And you know how much I love you too…” He was just expecting Eren to be going on and on about how much he cared about Levi. Mostly because he was always talking like that every time that he had the chance, and wouldn’t stop doing so until he was sure the message had gotten across. 

“Really, Levi, I love you so much.”

Levi leaned into Eren’s side and allowed a smile to stretch across his face.

“And I would love to spend the rest of my life with you.”

With those words spoken, Levi froze. 

He felt his stomach leap straight into his throat and his heart practically fall out of his chest. 

“Eren-”

“Seventeen years ago,” Eren walked in front of Levi and reached in his pocket to pull out a familiar piece of candy, “a little boy stopped in the middle of the park to give me a ring pop after I dropped mine in this very pond. I was a crying, snotty mess -and I know how much he hates it when people cry- but he stopped anyways, and gave me his so he could walk in the park peacefully without interruption with his Mom.” 

Levi placed his hands over his mouth as Eren got down onto one knee.

“Before I met you, I don’t think I truly understood what happiness could really feel like when I had someone like you by my side; assisting me every step of the way. You're always there for me when I’m not in the best state of mind- and fuck, you’re always so accepting of me when I blast the TV, and you’re always forgiving if I leave my dirty dishes on the table when I leave for work.”

A tear escaped Levi’s eye and he quickly wiped it away with the sleeve of his expensive blazer, “Eren…” He laughed gently at the ring that Eren had bought, which brought a sense of nostalgia to the whole ordeal. 

“I love you,” Eren said with a huge smile biting into his face, “so fucking much, and I don’t think I can spend another moment without knowing that we can be together for the rest of our lives… so Levi…”

Levi couldn’t hide the tears rushing down his face. 

“Will you allow me the honor of marrying you?” 

Eren was crushed in a hug before he could even read Levi’s facial expression. 

“Yes, yes, yes!” Levi cried out, kissing every inch of Eren’s face. 

A few people passing behind them on the sidewalk applauded the proposal with smiles, but it was obvious that Eren and Levi weren’t listening to them. They couldn’t have been bothered to really listen to anyone else and how they were congratulating them second-handedly. They were wrapped too much in their own excitement and love. 

Levi grabbed Eren by the sides of his face and yanked him forwards into a searing kiss that easily put forth all of the emotions he was currently feeling. It wasn’t the first time that they had kissed, and it most definitely wasn’t going to be the last, but it might as well of been their first because all of the sensations pouring into each other were entirely new,

They both pulled back for air and rested their foreheads against each other to breathe and sit in each other's presence. 

“Believe it or not, but I was going to propose to you tonight at dinner,” Levis breathed out.

They both laughed together at the realization and stood up from where they were sitting on the ground on their knees. Eren hugged Levi tightly and pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth, silently thanking him for allowing him the honor of now being able to call him his fiancee. 

Needless to say, by the time people asked to see the rings after they announced their engagement, Levi had finally found a ring worthy of Eren that wasn’t made out of plastic and sugar.


End file.
